Grateful
by Kates89
Summary: A walk to work leads Mac to start thinking about what he is most grateful for. My attempt at Leslie Emm's first person challenge.


**This is my go at Leslie Emm's first person challenge :) I got Mac, grateful and Sidewalk/pavement and after much thinking and a little help from the episode "Near Death" I came up with this :)**

**As you are all probably aware now, I'm not great at writing Mac, so please excuse the fact that he's probably a be OOC :)**

The sun beat down on me as I walked along the sidewalk, the traffic on the road was gridlocked due to an accident a little further up, which luckily I had heard about on the radio just before I'd left my apartment. So travelling to work by car wasn't an option today and I refused to ride in on the subway in this heat, getting shoved into them carriages like sardines, I'd have been one big ball of sweat by the time I had got off, so instead I had decided to walk. I quite liked days when I got to walk to work, it wasn't often, but when I did, I enjoyed it as it gave me time to think.

Today as I walked along, I got thinking about the different members of my team at the lab and how grateful I was for each one of them, they all had something different they brought to the team and I think that if any one of them choose to leave it was leave a gaping hole in our dynamic.

First off there is Jo, with her friendliness. If you ever need someone to talk to, or just to listen then Jo is the person to turn too. There has been many a time when I was unsure about a case or just needed some reassurance and Jo has been there to give it. I was unsure about hiring Jo at first, Stella was such a big part of the team and a very dear friend, that I wasn't sure if anyone could fill her shoes but Jo did from her very first day. She's become a very well-loved member of our team and I'm so glad she's a part of it.

Then there is Danny, definitely the most stubborn of the team, but while that can sometimes be seen as a bad thing, there has been a few times where Danny has been adamant on a case and it turns out that he had been right all along. This caused a lot of friction between us in the early days, as Danny was sort of a loose cannon and would go off on his own investigations, even after I'd told him not too. I'd been advised not to hire Danny and him being a loose cannon being one of the reasons not too, but I went against everyone's advice and hired him anyway. Which to this day I'm still glad I did. We may of have a difficult start but Danny has grown into a brilliant CSI and although he may be stubborn at times, he now has his wife to put him in his place.

Danny's wife is of course Lindsay, my CSI who transferred from Montana. She is a bit like Jo, in the sense that I was happy with Aiden on my team but I obviously had to lose Aiden and replace her with someone new. It took me a while to find her replacement, after many tiresome hours looking through application form after application form I finally came across Lindsay Monroe's. The reference from her former boss in Montana was very positive, especially when talking about her abilities in the lab and her dedication to the team there. After a quick phone call, I arranged an interview with Lindsay and not a week later, she had a job in my lab. To which she does very well, her sense of conviction is brilliant, she is very like Danny in that way, just a lot less stubborn, she's a little more willing to see other peoples ideas and ways of thinking. I like to think her and Danny balance each other out and together and separately they are both valued member of my team.

Next we have Sheldon, or Hawkes as everyone calls him, he came to my lab from the M.E's office. I remember receiving his transfer form on my desk and being a little shocked by it. Hawkes always seemed so comfortable in the morgue and seemed to love his job. After a lot of thinking and a discussion with Stella I decided to give Hawkes a shot at working in the lab and I'm so glad I did. Hawkes is a very smart man and his brains have come in handy too many times to count. He is so quick at working out mathematical equations for us or unscrambling mind-boggling clues and with his steady hands, after being a surgeon and then an ME, he is brilliant and putting evidence back together. He is getting a lot more confident out in the field too, I think that his choice to become a CSI was one of the best that he made and I for one am grateful that he made that choice.

Of course after Hawkes left the morgue we needed a new ME and that's where Sid comes in. Sid became an ME after years of being a chef, both two very different careers, but I guess like Hawkes he just wanted a change. Everyone in the lab loves Sid, he is very good at what he does and many times has been the one to give us that bit of evidence that we need to solve the case. Sid does have a quirky side though that not everyone quite knows how to take. He goes to this place, which Hawkes has named his 'creepy place' and sometimes you can have a lot of fun with Sid when he goes there. I remember one time when he started talking about wanting to drink hydrofluoric acid just to see what it did and I told him I felt the same way when I picked up a scalpel, his face was a picture when he realised I was just playing with him. Other times though it can be very weird, especially when Sid starts talking about threesome he's had. Overall though, Sid is a lovely, genuine guy and I'm glad that he is apart of our team.

We also have Don Flack, or just Flack to others, although I prefer to call him Don. He's not a member of the lab. He's a homicide detective who works in the precinct but works very closely with all of us at the lab. Don is a great guy but has a very sarcastic side, which comes out a lot when dealing with annoying or difficult suspects and sometimes I think they are rather shocked when they hear the stuff that comes out of his mouth. Although Don works fantastically with everyone on my team, I've got to say that he and Danny work best together. When they are out on the field together they are like some sort of dream team.

Lastly and by no means least we have Adam Ross, are geeky lab tech who is well on his way to becoming a brilliant CSI. Adam is well Adam and I know there has been a lot of times that I've moaned about him in the past but I don't think there is anything that I would change about him. He is a genius when he comes to anything technically and like all the others on my team, there has been many a time when because of Adam's technical knowledge we have solved a case. Others may find his nervousness and his rambles that he goes on annoying but I personally think they are what make Adam who he is.

I walk along the sidewalk and up to the doors of the building that hold the crime lab and smile as I enter knowing that I'm about to spend another day with my amazing team and no matter what the day holds, I'll always leave this building feeling grateful for my team and proud at what we can all achieve together, making this city a better place.


End file.
